Environmental Sustainability
Among Seattle University's many environmental undertakings, there are projects ranging from composting initiatives to water conservation. There are also solar panels on buildings, and a central recycling yard with an extensive recycling program. The university has been composting since 1995, and in 2003 it built the first composting facility in the state on an urban campus. The University's Grounds Department is committed to fostering an organic, sustainable and environmentally friendly campus that functions as an urban wildlife sanctuary.
SU received the Sustainability Innovator Award in 2007 from the Sustainable Endowments Institute for SU's pre-consumer food waste composting program and the Green Washington Award in 2008 from Washington CEO Magazine for SU's sustainable landscape practices and pre-consumer food waste composting program. The Princeton Review's 2009 Green Rating gave the school a 97 out of a possible 99.
SU's move to a pesticide-free campus began in the early 1980s when Ciscoe Morris, now a local gardening celebrity, was head of the SU Grounds Department in the 1980s. He put a halt to chemical spraying and in its place released more than 20,000 beneficial insects called lacewings to eat the aphids that had infested trees on campus. It worked and that led to a whole host of pesticide-free gardening practices. Ciscoe began a transformation that has made the university a model for ecological gardening.
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